Minnesota Update
This week, the Minnesota House Energy and Climate Policy and Finance Committee continued to focus on climate change and its impact on Minnesota. Tuesday’s hearing featured a presentation from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency detailing their report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Minnesota. The key takeaways from the report that the presenters concentrated on was that while Minnesota’s Greenhouse gas emissions have declined 12% since 2005 levels, the 15% reduction goal of the Next Generation Energy Act was not met. They shared slides that showed that when total emissions were broken down by sector in Minnesota electric utilities and transportation are about half of all emissions, which is followed by agriculture and forestry at twenty-two percent.
On Thursday, the committee heard from climate researchers on electric power systems, their climate impacts and the future of renewable energy. Dr. Ned Mohan, a professor of Power Electronic Systems at the University of Minnesota highlighted the answers to climate change: shifting to all electricity, all renewable, conservation, and a sustainability mindset – though his larger point was that human attitudes on energy production and carbon emissions must change. The overall theme from the presenters was that the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost to implement change, though President of the Board of the Energy Systems Integration Group Mark Ahlstrom noted his believe that a goal of 80% renewable energy is achievable at a lower cost than what we are paying for today’s energy.
The Chair of the committee, Representative Jean Wagenius (DFL- Minneapolis), has stated that the committee will take a comprehensive look at legislative proposals to further the goal of decreased emission reductions in the coming weeks.